John Scoble
Introduction
In episode 12 of our Butterfly series, we examined some of the historical influences on beliefs including monarchy, empire, and patriarchy. At the end of this session, our colleague, Bill van den Bergh suggested that we should examine the divine feminine in a future episode. I want to acknowledge Bill’s inspiration for this topic.
in “Wild Mercy”, Mirabai Starr records advice provided by her friend and Sufi teacher Asha Greer:
“Don’t be fooled. Most of the spiritual books that have influenced us were written by men in societies where women were not included. You’ve been programmed by a lot of dead men who had no idea what it is to be a woman”[1]
Being mindful of this, your moderators sought the assistance of Reverend Sue Grimmett and a variety of female authors to do justice to this topic from a female perspective.
Many books and scholarly dissertations have been written about the divine feminine. It is impossible to do justice to the topic in a short briefing paper. Therefore, what I have tried to do is to provide snapshots of some of the key concepts or principles which, hopefully, taken together, provide food for reflection. This paper is more like a photo album than an essay.
What are the characteristics of the feminine?
In addressing the question “What is Wisdom?” the Book of Solomon has this to say:
“She is intelligent, holy, unique, subtle, flowing, transparent, and pure; She is distinct, invulnerable, good, keen, irresistible, and gracious; She is humane, faithful, sure, calm, all-powerful, all-seeing, and available to all who are intelligent, pure, and altogether simple.[2]
Cynthia Bourgeault offers this commentary on a psychological approach to the question of Christianity’s missing feminine dimension: the quest for the “archetypal feminine.”
Working from primarily Jungian reference points, this approach seeks to identify a set of characteristics that can be seen as intrinsically feminine (the list generally includes: “intuitive,” “relational,” “sensitive,” “receptive,” “nurturing,” “nonhierarchical”) and to redress the imbalances in the Christian institutional psyche primarily at this level.[3]
What is God’s gender?
Gender is a human construct that helps us to make sense of our world. I have witnessed others, and indeed experimented myself with, interposing “he” and “she” to indicate that God has both male and female characteristics. While this is helpful and well-intentioned, I have concluded that God is beyond gender.
Richard Rohr distinguishes here between the human Jesus and the divine Christ:
“Although Jesus was a man, the Christ is beyond gender, so it should be expected that the Big Tradition would have found feminine ways, consciously or unconsciously, to symbolize the full Divine Incarnation and to give God a more feminine character—as the Bible itself often does.”[4]
Sue Grimmett observes:
“The very maleness of Jesus has reinforced patriarchal structures in society and the church, becoming definitive as the essential form of both divinity and humanity. Many theologians, however, aware of the liberating potential and power of the gospel of Jesus the Christ, recognised that Christology needed to be reclaimed for women if the central figure of Christian faith was not to be forever enmeshed in colonising and oppressive structures.”[5]
What is the Divine Feminine?
Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Jewish contemplative, and teacher, says this:
“The authors of the Wisdom books [such as Proverbs, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, and more] took this gender specificity seriously and envisioned Wisdom as Mother, God’s consort and bride, the Divine Feminine through which the masculine God fashioned all creation.”[6]
Elizabeth Johnson focuses on Wisdom’s loving spirit:
“In biblical wisdom writings, Sophia Wisdom is a figure of power and might with female images for the divine which celebrate the one God’s gracious goodness in creating and sustaining the world.[7]
Johnson describes the action of divine Wisdom:
“Reveling in the world at its beginning, knowing its secrets, indwelling its creatures with her loving spirit, nourishing all with her food and drink, and prevailing over evil, personified Wisdom is one way of figuring the creative, revealing and saving presence of God in engagement with the world.”[8]
St Paul likened creation to the act of giving birth (Romans 8:22). Mirabai Starr observed that St Hildegard of Bingen was smitten with the creator and enamoured by every element of creation:
“Hildegard’s mysticism is intimate - erotic, even. She coined the term viriditas to evoke the lush, extravagant, moist, and verdant quality of the Divine, manifesting as the “greening power” that permeates all that is. This life-giving energy is imbued with a distinctly feminine quality.
The earth is at the same time mother, she is the mother of all that is natural, mother of all that is human. She is the mother of all, for contained in her are the seeds of all. [9]
Mirabai Starr also referred to St Julian of Norwich and her “showings”, which were published after Julian’s death:
“The most controversial of Julian’s teachings was a declaration of God-the-mother. The second person of the Trinity, Julian reasoned, had to be female, because who but a mother would break herself open and pour herself out for love of her children? This is what Christ did, Julian reminds us. He incarnated for love.[10]
Who are the iconic women in the New Testament?
It is difficult to pin down accurately the roles that women played during Jesus’ life and in the first century of the church. This is because of the way in which the written tradition was recorded. All the writers are men and in addressing their audiences, they were primarily focused on the specific needs of their audience communities and passing on the good news of Jesus’ teaching. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile exploring what is recorded for us.
Mary of Nazareth, Mother of Jesus
Mary gave birth to Jesus and cared for him throughout his childhood. It is possible that some of this time was as a single mother, since there is no mention of Joseph after the finding of Jesus in the temple at age 12 (Lk 2:41-47). Mary played a prominent role in the wedding feast at Cana and was present at the crucifixion.
Richard Rohr comments on the significance of Mary:
“Why did Christianity, in both the East and West, fall head over heels in love with this seemingly ordinary woman Mary, who is a minor figure in the New Testament? We gave her names like Theotokos, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Notre Dame, La Virgen of this or that, Nuestra Señora, Our Mother of Sorrows, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and Our Lady of just about every village or shrine in Europe. We are clearly dealing not just with a single woman here but a foundational symbol—or, to borrow the language of Carl Jung (1875–1961), an “archetype”—an image that constellates a whole host of meanings that cannot be communicated logically but is grounded in our collective unconscious.”[11]
Sue Grimmett observes:
“The kind of God worshipped by those who would seek to contain the powerful symbol of Mary, limit the work of the incarnation, put out the sacred fires and dam up the wells is a God who is solely masculine and transcendent. The immanent and feminine, is less easily corralled by those in power as it works through the sacred relationships of all things and acknowledges the potential for a divine rebirth in any moment and in any human life.”[12]
Mary in John’s gospel
Mary was a very common name in biblical times. Cynthia Bourgeault writes about a conversation with Bruno Barnhart, author of “The Good Wine”, in which he speculates that the women who interact with Jesus in John’s gospel are all one woman. He cites four crucial episodes: the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11), the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-41), the anointing at Bethany (John 12:1-8), and the garden of the resurrection (John 20:1-18). He concludes that the imagery is overwhelmingly nuptial in each of these episodes and that they all point to the same woman. He identifies Jesus’ bride as Holy Sophia herself.[13] For me it’s a stretch, but it does help to illustrate the difficulty of interpreting Scripture.
Mary of Magdala
One of the themes of Cynthia Bourgeault’s excellent book on Mary Magdalene is that Mary understood the intuitive/mystical character of Jesus and his teaching better than any of the male apostles. One of her sources is the incomplete fifth century papyrus codex written in Sahidic Coptic known as the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, which was discovered in 1896. Bourgeault writes:
“If Jesus shows us what the completed human being looks like in male form, [Mary Magdalene] models it for us in its female version; together they become the Christosophia, the androgynous archetype of human wholeness. And because her human heart and lover’s passion are so central to this transformation, she teaches us that we need not be afraid of these things in our own spiritual striving; the path to the fullness of being lies through human intimacy, not away from it. She binds the icon of the human heart to the angel of Holy Sophia.”[14]
Women in the early Christian communities
It is also worth noting the role that women generally played in the early Christian communities. Temple worship was based on the Old Testament and dominated by men. Followers of Jesus were regarded with suspicion, considered a breakaway sect and quickly became persecuted and driven underground (both metaphorically and literally). The early Christians needed to meet privately and often in small gatherings in the home. Inspired by the place in society that Jesus’ teaching offered them, women played leading roles in organising and celebrating the communal meals. Furthermore, there is evidence in the New Testament that women participated actively in the spreading of the good news (see for example reference to Priscilla in Acts 16:3)
What are the implications of the Divine Feminine for individuals?
This is an essential question for each of us to ponder. We are made in God’s image. The cosmic or universal Christ is in each of us. We need to nurture the characteristics of the feminine described above. We need to harness our intuition and creativity. Spiritual guides in all traditions advise that one needs to develop a regular spiritual practice that includes meditation. For men especially, this will mean suppressing the rational mind and embracing the mystical heart.
In reflecting on regular practice, I am reminded of the native American father who told his son that he has two tigers inside him that are always fighting each other. One tiger drives him to goodness: the second drives him to evil. The youngster asked his father “which one wins?”. The father replied, “The one you feed.”
What are the implications of the Divine Feminine for the Church?
Cynthia Bourgeault reflects on the efforts made in recent decades to re-capture the feminine dimension:
“In our own times it has become widely obvious that Christianity is suffering, perhaps in extremis, from its lack of what is typically called “the feminine dimension.” This situation has been the subject of scholarship and intense conversation in the church for at least four decades now, ever since the rise of feminism in the 1960s gave a language for addressing imbalances too long and silently suffered under……the remedy for the imbalance was to increase the number of women holding visible leadership positions in the church as pastors, priests, scholars, and administrators. Mainline Protestant denominations got right on board with the program. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, by contrast, have refused to open the doors even a notch”.[15]
Bourgeault says this push for leadership is not enough:
“The root problem is seen to be Christianity’s unintegrated anima, and the solution thus entails a vigorous reclamation of this feminine dimension, not only in the political structure of the church but in its liturgical, symbolic, and language structures as well (in these latter capacities it is often referred to as reclaiming “the feminine dimension of God”). It is the qualities themselves that are feminine, this approach emphasizes, not the individual woman or man who bears them.”[16]
Why is language and symbolism important? This question is best answered by an example. Richard Rohr reveals that Christena Cleveland’s research of Black Madonnas was not simply an intellectual project; it changed her entire perspective of God and how God loves the world:
Within seconds of viewing photos of the Black Madonnas, my gut shifted from terror to hope. Before I even read a word about the Black Madonna, my soul immediately recognized that these photos and drawings of ancient Black Madonnas declared a truth about my own sacredness and gave birth to a new understanding of God. I call Her the Sacred Black Feminine. She is the God who is with and for Black women because She is a Black woman. She is the God who definitively declares that Black women—who exist below Black men and white women at the bottom of the white male God’s social pecking order—not only matter but are sacred. And in doing so, She declares that all living beings are sacred.[17]
Sue Grimmett sees a pathway to interconnectedness and eco-spirituality:
“Feminist Christologies seek to release the liberating praxis of Jesus, with his preferential treatment for women, the poor and the marginalised, from the controlling symbols that have reinforced oppressive systems of power. Many women have experienced the loss of self and struggle for personal integrity and strength that are the results of an unholy alliance between theology, church authority and patriarchy. Liberating Christologies are critical to the endeavour of redeeming impoverished visions of Jesus and allowing the gospel message to bring healing, transformation and wholeness to the community of Christ, both men and women. In this process, the incarnational theology that emerges recognises the interconnectedness of all life, and extends Christ’s redemptive action to the cosmos, drawing people into more responsible and compassionate relations with both human and non-human inhabitants of our planet.”[18]
At a practical level, Sue Grimmett also makes incisive comments about two critical and current social issues, namely domestic violence, and the exclusion of the LGBTQI+ community:
“So often in churches women, (and it is mainly women), have been counselled to practice love, forgiveness, and no-matter-what commitment when their relationships have been abusive and far from the intent of marriage which is to be for mutual human flourishing. It seems a very low bar to settle for marriage between a man and a woman as the only requirement for intimate relationships without demanding that those relationships also demonstrate the fruit of the spirit.
At the same time, the church is prone to judging and pronouncing as wrong those intimate relationships between people of the same gender or those diverse in gender which are manifesting the fruit of being loving, committed, and mutually self-giving. How might we need to recognise the movement of God and, instead of relying only on the familiar rules and outward appearance, perceive more deeply the dynamics of love and mutual self-offering which point to the presence of the Holy Spirit?” [19]
Questions for discussion
1. Which of the quotes in this document most spoke to your heart?
2. How do you encounter the divine feminine in your life?
3. Do you ascribe a gender to God? Is it important to ponder this?
[1] Miribai Starr, “Wild Mercy - Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics” p.123
[2] Wisdom of Solomon 7:22-23
[3] Cynthia Bourgeault, “Mary Magdalene – Discovering the woman at the heart of Christianity” p.170
[4] Richard Rohr, CAC meditations, 13 March 2022
[5] Sue Grimmett. Unpublished academic assignment.
[6] CAC meditations, 14 March 2022
[7] Elizabeth Johnson, Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love., p.141
[8] Ibid, p.193
[9] CAC meditations, 18 March 2022
[10] Mirabai Starr, “Wild Mercy”, p124
[11] CAC meditations, 13 March 2022.
[12] Sermon delivered at St Andrews Anglican Church Indooroopilly on the feast of Mary, mother of our Lord, 15 August 2022
[13] Cynthia Bourgeault, "The Meaning of Mary Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity", p.177
[14] Ibid, p.180
[15] Cynthia Bourgeault, Ibid, p.169
[16] Cynthia Bourgeault, Ibid, p.170
[17] CAC meditations, 17 March 2022
[18] Sue Grimmett. Unpublished academic assignment.
[19] Sue Grimmett, “Raising the bar on goodness”, https://anotherplacetoparty.net/2022/05/raising-the-bar-on-goodness/
June 2023
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